Thailand progressives back down on promises to abolish lese majeste law
All readers please report to your school classroom, or to your mine face.
Today is the final Monday of January, 2024
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realise half of them are stupider than that. (George Carlin)
Seven members of my family have been killed in violence -- shot or bombed. Yet, the authorities still suspect me, as if we who suffer the most are somehow complicit.
-- Unidentified resident of Yala province, on the 20th anniversary of violence that re-ingited the separatist was in the Deep South. - https://t.ly/83TCC
THAILAND POLITICS
Would-be Thai prime minister Pita Limjaroenrat (PHOTO below) and his election-winning 'progressive' Move Forward Party announced yesterday they have abandoned the plan that got them elected to parliament: abolish or radically amend the world's harshest lese majeste law on insulting the king or royal family.
It looks like a political retreat.
The super-powerful military-appointed Constitutional Court is to rule on Thuraday whether to dissolve the MFP -- or to give Pita and friends hars political punishments.
The MFP and hardline military supporters made no comment on the change of course. The MFP announced on Sunday it intends to introduce new bills or amendments of 47 existing laws, none of which is the extremely harsh (50 years in prison in the latest trial) Section 112 of the Criminal Code, or lese majeste.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/2731670/
NOTE: No other political party, including the Thaksinesque ruling Pheu Thai (for Thais) has made a peep about the lese majeste law.
The election promise to amend or abolish 'Section 112' was the dominant issue that won the election for the progressives last May. Since then the hardline conservatives -- pro-King Maha Vajiralongkorn, pro-military coup, have dominated.
NOTE2 On the website of the leading political newspaper Matichon, the story above was ratio'd 2-to-76 in less than an hour.
K-pop world idol 'Princess' Lalisa of Buri Ram and Blackpink is Global Fashion Icon Number 2 -- second only to another K-pop idol, Kim Taehyung, aka V, South Korean singer and member of the K-pop boy band BTS.
Five other Thai 'idols' are in the Top 100. Clockwise from Lisa
Lisa ranks No. 2 in the world as six Thais find place among 100 Global Fashion Icons.
Other Thais who made the list this year were (top, left to right):
Lisa ranks No. 2 as six Thais find place among 100 Global Fashion Icons
No. 11 singer-actor Briggr Chivaaree
No. 15 singer-moidel-actor "Win" Opas-iamkajorn, Thai brand ambassador of Prada.
No. 25 actor-model "Apo" Wattanagitiphat, brand ambassador of Dior and Piaget Swiss watch.
No. 31 "Mai" Hoorne, actress-model and Thailand's first brand ambassador of Gucci.
No. 38 "Gulf" Traipipattanapong, Channel 3 soap actor, Friend of Onitsuka Tiger and Friend of Gucci.
https://www.nationthailand.com/lifestyle/entertainment/40035053
No losers, two winners in Taiwan poll
Super-analyst of Thai, East and Southeast Asian politics Thitinan Pongsudhirak looks to the East.
The results from the January 13 general election in Taiwan ended up with no major losers among the main contenders, and two big wins for democracy in Asia and the geopolitical status quo.
The KMT also won the overall legislative poll, which means Taiwan's executive and lawmaking body are split
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2730755/
U.N. high court punts on Israel-Hamas war, and genocide. Also apartheid.
Background: The ICJ (International Court of Justice) is the highest ranking court of the United Nations. Flashback: It has been directly involved and has ruling for Thailand, against Cambodia in the territorial dispute over who owns the Preah Vihear temple at the border of Isan, including temple grounds and out-buildings. There was actual warfare between the two armies, and Indonesia became a dsignated peacekeeper.
Now, the ICJ has ordered Israel to prevent genocide, but has not demanded a ceasefire, an amistice or any halt to the war.
South Africa demanded that the ICJ investigate the Israel-Hamas was in Gaza, with particular attention to (alleged) Israeli genocide in he Gaza, and apartheid in both Gaza and Israel itself.
The ICJ reported it had no clear evidence of either, but would keep both sujects open for possible or probably further investigation and reports.
The International Court of Justice has no enforcement capability and most of its decisions, like this, are muddy and somewhat muddled.
Al Jazeera https://t.ly/qqo3J
CANADA JUSTIN CORRUPTION CORONAVIRUS
This is a claim that there are still dozens of people who don't know about this story.
Trudeau government used faked intelligence to illegally frame protesting truckers as violent extremists.
https://shorturl.at/mAHOX
A somewhat riveting read, by Niall Ferguson.
The Treason of the Intellectuals.
It might be thought extraordinary that the most prestigious universities in the world should have been infected so rapidly with a politics imbued with antisemitism. Yet exactly the same thing has happened before.
and NPR weighs in.
For many German academics, Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933 was a moment of national salvation.
To students, he was the Wagnerian hero Rienzi, the demagogue who unites the people of Rome.
https://www.npr.org/2008/01/18/18196087/wagners-rienzi
ASEAN OPINION
Asean should back a new Myanmar
In Myanmar, conflict between the military regime and a broad coalition of resistance organisations has been escalating. Since the launch of large-scale coordinated attacks in late October 2023, the military regime (Tatmadaw; the dictatorship) has suffered major losses.
As Asean members prepare themselves for the Luang Prabang meeting, one of the organisation's inherent weaknesses is now even more visible than before. Only two of Asean's 10 members share a border with Myanmar -- Thailand and Laos.
Myanmar's other important neighbours will not be in Luang Prabang: China, India and Bangladesh.
Who wrote that essay?
Laetitia van den Assum is a former Dutch ambassador to Thailand and Myanmar. Kobsak Chutikul is a retired ambassador of Thailand and a former elected member of parliament.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2729332/
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had “candid, substantive and fruitful strategic communication” in Bangkok with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
They pledged that Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden would "maintain regular contact to provide strategic guidance for bilateral relations ... and make good use of the current strategic communication.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2731630/
Oopsie. HAHA
https://twitter.com/wretchardthecat/status/1751036696031080890
